Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Krebs: FCC Must Make ISPs Crack Down on Spammers and Malware

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is asking for help in developing a "Cybersecurity Roadmap," an ambitious plan to identify dangerous vulnerabilities in the Internet infrastructure, as well as threats to consumers, businesses and governments.

The one piece of advice I will offer the commission is to begin measuring the responsiveness of Internet service providers (ISPs) and hosting companies in quashing malicious threats that take up residence on their networks. This is an imperative first step to prevent attacks on the Internet infrastructure, in addition to making the Internet a friendlier place for users.

The FCC said that it is seeking comments on how to proceed with the roadmap, which is part of the commission's National Broadband Plan to roll high-speed Internet services to more Americans.

The commission made the request at almost the same time as the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project issued its finding that more than half of Americans disagree with federal efforts to expand broadband deployment, an effort for which the Obama administration has allocated more than $7 billion. The Pew report came as the FCC was releasing data showing that most Americans who are paying for high-speed access aren't getting anywhere near the Internet speeds they've been promised.